Samsung Gear Fit features

Along with the Galaxy S5, Samsung also launched the entire new Gear series, which consists of the Gear Fit, Gear 2 and the Gear 2 Neo. We had a chance to play around with the Gear Fit and Gear 2 (video coming up soon) and here’s the Gear Fit on video. As the name suggests, the Fit is designed for fitness enthusiasts and features a heart-rate monitor and other fitness features. This is also the only smartwatch in the Gear line-up to sport a curved AMOLED display. The Gear Fit is priced at Rs 15,900 and will begin shipping from April 11.

The Samsung Gear Fit was has a 1.84-inch curved Super AMOLED display with 432×128 screen resolution. The screen is fully touch capable. The sensors on the device are Accelerometer, Gyro, Heart Rate. In terms of connectivity it has Bluetooth 4.0 and it is IP67 Water and Dust Resistant. The dimensions of the device are 23.4 x 57.4 x 11.95 mm and it weighs 27g. It has a standard 210mAh battery and Samsung is promising 3-4 days battery life with typical usage and 5 days of battery life with low usage.

It features a pedometer, exercise metre, heart rate monitor and can track your sleep as well as act as a stopwatch and a regular watch. Users can also connect it to the smartphones and get instant notifications from Galaxy smartphones such as incoming calls, emails, SMS, alarm, S-planner,and third party apps while on the move.

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New gadgets hope to hush Mumbai's incessant honking

A handful of fed-up residents in one of the world's noisiest cities have taken on a daunting challenge: persuading Indian drivers to stop honking their car horns.

Non-stop beeping has become the dominant soundtrack to Mumbai as clattering rickshaws, public buses, clapped-out taxis, weaving motorbikes and private cars fight for space on the traffic-clogged roads.


Now two separate teams in the city have come up with devices aimed at instilling some peace: one by forcing overzealous horn-users to open their wallets, and another by simply attacking drivers' consciences.

"People blow their horns just for no sake," said Jayraj Salgaonkar, who with a group of engineers has developed the 'Oren horn usage meter' (the name 'Oren' derives from local pronunciation of the word 'horn').

The meter does not prevent the horn from working but instead allows for a limited amount of honking, after which it causes the vehicle's tail-lights to flash and alert the traffic police, who could then issue a fine.

The driver gets green, amber and red-light warnings over his honk allowance and can top up his meter "like a pre-paid phone card", said Salgaonkar. He is in talks with local authorities to get the device mandated city-wide.


"I have invested money and time and emotion," he told AFP, relating his years of exasperation with the city's cacophony.

"People take pride in honking their horn. There's an ego trip over having a car. Until you make people pay for their usage of the horn, it's not going to work," said the publisher turned honk activist, who is hoping that the potential revenues brought by the system will help persuade authorities to adopt it.

The second invention, also vying for official sanction, less publicly castigates the honkers.

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Ray-Ban maker to work with Google on Google Glass eyewear

Ray-Ban sunglasses maker Luxottica said on Monday it had sealed a strategic partnership with Google over its Glass eyewear that could pave the way for a new market in smart glasses.

In a statement, Italy's Luxottica said it would design, develop and distribute a new kind of eyewear for Google Glass.


Google Glass is a small stamp-sized screen attached to a pair of eyeglass frames. It can record video, access email, and retrieve information from the web by connecting wirelessly to a user's mobile phone.

Luxottica said the two groups would work together to create innovative wearable devices for the Glass brand.No financial terms were disclosed.


Luxottica said its two major brands, Ray-Ban and Oakley, would be part of the deal with Google, but gave no further details.


"We believe that a strategic partnership with a leading player like Google is the ideal platform for developing a new way forward in our industry and answering the evolving needs of consumers on a global scale," Luxottica chief executive officer Andrea Guerra said.

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Indian student builds shoe to charge mobile phone while walking

A class 12 Indian student hailing from Nainital, Rajesh Adhikari, has created a pair of shoes which lets users charge their phone while walking. The charger works on an ingenious spring and dynamo mechanism that powers the device connected to it via a simple cable. But you’ll need to walk for it to be of any use.

Or get someone to walk in your shoes. Each time you lift a foot, the spring on the underside of the shoe stretches and relaxes, and when you apply pressure on the heel while taking a step, the mechanism kicks into play. The energy generated by the setup is also capable of providing enough juice to light up a small room.

An Indian-American teenager had won a $50,000 Young Scientist Award at the Intel ISEF 2013 Grand Awards Ceremony last year for working on a technology which would allow people to juice up their mobile devices within 20 seconds. The magic lies in high-performance super capacitors which suck up power in a jiffy and these can be hidden inside the concerned gadget’s battery itself.

The Genneo project on Kickstarter requires users to simply shake the charger, if not move around with it in tow in order to get enough energy to power up their phones. The OnBeat solar headphones, as the name clearly suggests, harnesses the might of the sun and passes it on to your thirsty handset. And then there were those charging shorts, of course.

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Meet Android Wear: Google’s new OS for smartwatches

So this is Google’s vision for a smartwatch and we love what we see. Android Wear brings the refinement of the Google’s card-based design language and the power of Google Now to your wrist in what looks and sounds like a fantastic product.

Google says LG, Motorola, Asus, Samsung, HTC, Intel, Qualcomm, Fossil and MediaTek have all signed up as hardware and manufacturing partners for Android Wear and we are likely to see an array of Android-powered smartwatches later this year. LG and Motorola have seemingly got the jump on the competition. LG will launch its G Watch in the summer, along with Motorola, whose Moto 360, looks like a gift from the smartwatch heavens.

But before we get taken over by devices and specs, let’s look at what Android Wear is and what Google thinks a smartwatch should be about. We have already touched upon some of the things that we would like to see in a smartwatch. Ideally, we had said, we want a smartwatch that harnesses the power of Google Now and its contextually-aware, location-based goodness. Google has delivered on that front.


Android Wear is Google Now shrunk down to work and fit on a smaller device with not as much power as a full-fledged Android phone. In that sense, Android Wear is an extension of Google Now, with Google Cloud Notification acting as a second pillar in the OS. It will also have all the relevant sensors to deliver fitness-related data that are an indispensable aspect of wearables.


In terms of design and UI, Google has brought refinement and colour to the smartwatch UI. Samsung’s Gear UI from last year was very monotonous albeit minimalist, but there are bright elements in Google’s UI that should make your day slightly more cheerful, even if there’s a traffic jam delaying you. And then there’s the typical Google flair for sliding animations when using gestures. It all looks very slick. What we don’t know is what kind of hardware it will require to run smoothly.

“The wide variety of Android applications means you’ll receive the latest posts and updates from your favorite social apps, chats from your preferred messaging apps, notifications from shopping, news and photography apps, and more,” Sundar Pichai, SVP, Android, Chrome & Apps, said in a blog post introducing the OS.

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Snapdeal to launch GOQii fitness band and services in India starting at Rs 5,999

e-Commerce firm Snapdeal has partnered US-based GOQii to bring the latter’s fitness band and services to consumers in India.

The six-month plan will cost Rs 5,999, while the 12-month package has been priced at Rs 9,999.


Customers will be able to place orders for a GOQii subscription directly from Snapdeal.com with the complete plan including the proprietary GOQii band, the GOQii Personal Coach service and the GOQii app, Snapdeal said in a statement.


The subscription fee includes advice and motivation from the fitness coach  and experts via video/audio calls and a messaging service.


This puts you directly in touch with the fitness instructor and allows them to keep a closer eye on your workout. While it’s always easy to turn off a wristband or any other device which keeps telling you to pump it up, it’s much harder to do that with a voice, that you have become familiar with.


“The GOQii philosophy is driven by the passion for healthy and meaningful living. Having used many other wearable tech products, I felt that something was missing – they were just a bunch of gadgets, apps and online data-crunching solutions, which lacked sustained engagement, motivation, customized advice or a human connection.

I needed something more than data; I was looking for a complete solution for a more fulfilling way of life. With GOQii we have created the solution,” Vishal Gondal, founder and chief executive of GOQii had earlier said in a press statement.

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Emotion detector to make you a safe driver

Researchers have developed an emotion detector that can analyse facial expressions and identify which of the seven universal emotions a person is feeling.

What about a device that can read and fix your emotions while you navigate your way in heavy traffic? Researchers have developed an emotion detector that can analyse facial expressions and identify which of the seven universal emotions a person is feeling.


This technology can be useful in the fields of video gaming, medicine, marketing and also in driver safety as in addition to fatigue, the emotional state of the driver is also a risk factor.

It is not easy to measure emotions within the confines of a car. The solution thus explored by scientists at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne - who specialise in facial detection, monitoring and analysis - was to get drivers' faces do the job.

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Indian wearable device raises $200k online

A wearable device developed by a 23-year-old Indian based in Kerala has just concluded an overwhelmingly successful campaign on crowd-funding platform Indiegogo. Fin, a tiny hardware product that you can wear on your thumb as a ring and which converts your whole palm into a gesture interface, has raised about $200,000 from some 1,600 people around the world who have pre-ordered the product.

Fin's initial target was to raise $100,000. But in mid-February, when it found its target could be achieved faster than anticipated, it extended the campaign's deadline to March 9, resulting in a doubling of its collections.


This is the second Indian hardware-cum-software startup to have had a great innings on a crowd-funding platform in recent times. Late last year, Gecko, a coin-sized electronic device with a multitude of uses and developed and marketed by a Bangalore startup, raised orders worth $135,485 — more than double the initially targeted $50,000.


Fin has been developed by Rohildev N, who grew up in Malappuram in Kerala and who graduated from Kathir College of Engineering in Coimbatore in 2012.


Eight months ago, he established RHL Vision Technologies at the Startup Village in Kochi to work on touchless technologies, a project he started during his final year of engineering.


Fin, worn as a ring on your thumb, has sensors that can uniquely recognize each segment (phalange) of the fingers. It also has Bluetooth that can be used to link Fin to other devices like your smartphone, TV or another wearable device. So you can assign different functions to each finger segment, and you can perform a function by just making your thumb touch the relevant segment. The possibilities this creates are phenomenal. The simple touch of your thumb on a finger segment can send an emergency alert, silence your phone, move to the next track on your playlist, pick up a call — all without taking the phone out of your pocket or bag. Your fingers can be your numeric keypad.

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Wello is a smartphone case from Azoi that tracks your health

Do you really have to go to the doctor every time you want to check vital parameters such as blood pressure or heart rate? Not if you have a portable health tracker, like a wristband that tracks fitness. While wearable devices have been the talk of the town for some time, innovation hasn’t stopped there. Enter Azoi Inc, a US-based startup that has a research centre in Ahmedabad, with a wearable health monitor for your smartphone — Wello.

Yes, it’s a smartphone case. One that lets you track six vital parameters — blood pressure, heart rate, temperature, ECG, blood oxygen and lung function — in 30 seconds. To measure five of these, all you need to do is place four fingers on Wello’s sensors just like holding the phone while taking a picture. Measurement of the sixth parameter, lung function, requires you to breathe in and out using an accessory that comes with Wello.

“There’s no consumer-facing device like Wello in the market. It can monitor health and let people check normal health levels without going through 200 lab tests. We are working on apps for iPhone and Android, which will let you track your medical history,” Ami Karnik, co-founder and head of strategy for Azoi Inc said at an event in Delhi on Thursday.

However, Karnik was quick to point out that Wello is not a clinical device and that Azoi Inc won’t ask doctors to use it. This device is for people who suffer from health problems such as hypertension, heart disease, low or high blood pressure. For these people, Wello can be a quick way to know whether they need to visit a doctor or whether a particular task is proving too taxing.

Azoi had a prototype case for demonstration during the event in Delhi. It was easy to use and showed data on all five parameters. Although this reporter’s vital parameters appeared to be normal, the data couldn’t be verified against lab equipment. Since the demo units were prototypes, Azoi refused a request for a review unit.

One thing that was clear from the prototype is that being available as a smartphone case is an advantage over wearable devices for Wello. Most people almost always carry their smartphones with them, so they are less likely to forget it. But it cannot passively monitor your health — you will have to keep reminding yourself to spare 30 seconds once every few days.

“Habitual use is a problem with standalone health monitors. That is why we chose to make Wello a smartphone case. It has a ‘brain’, which can be removed and put into any Wello case. There’s no need to worry if you change your phone. As of now, we have cases for iPhone 4S, 5 and 5S, and there will be cases for Android phones too,” Karnik said.

Wello is available for pre-order on azoi.com and costs Rs 12,350. Pre-orders are open till May 4 and should you order one, you can expect delivery by August.

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Sugar to power your smartphone

Heard of a battery that consumes sugar and can run your smartphone for 10 days? This bio-battery may soon become a reality.

Researchers at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, popularly known as Virginia Tech, have designed a new bio-battery with a greater output per weight than the typical lithium-ion batteries used in most electronics.


A bio-battery converts sugar into energy - much like our metabolism - decomposing sugar into carbon dioxide and water while releasing electrons.


"By using the lithium-ion battery, for example, your phone can only last for one day. In the future, it would use sugar as the fuel. Then the phone could last 10 days," explained Zhiguang Zhu, a researcher at Virginia Tech.

The new bio-battery fully converts sugar into energy, which means more power output than previous bio-batteries and a greater battery charge than common lithium-ion batteries.


The new bio-battery gets its efficiency by using a novel system of enzymes which are proteins that help the reaction to take place.

The system uses two active enzymes that liberate two pairs of electrons from the sugar while 10 other enzymes help to reset the reaction inside the bio-battery.

Once the reaction is reset, the active enzymes release another quartet of electrons.


After six cycles, the bio-battery extracts all of the energy bound in the sugar molecule along with carbon dioxide and water.

However, scientists would have to overcome a few more challenges on the engineering side before bio-batteries are put into commercial use, said a paper published online in the journal Nature Communications.

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Motorola planning to launch a smartwatch later this year

 

Motorola's senior vice president, Rick Osteloh, revealed that the company would compete in the wearables market again.

Speaking at a panel discussion at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Motorola's senior vice president has revealed that Motorola will launch a smartwatch later this year.


The smartwatch will address "consumer issues like style and battery life" which had badly affected the prior attempts that Motorola made in the wearables segment.


Without providing any further details about the products, Osterloh's revelations make it clear that Motorola is ready to compete with other manufacturers like Samsung, Sony and LG which have already revealed their own chunks of smartwatches.


The vice president did not reveal any exact release dates or price of the smartwatches.

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New wristband uses your pulse as password

A new hi-tech wristband reportedly uses the wearer's pulse as a password to authenticate a number of devices and applications.

Startup Bionym has developed Nymi, a wristband that uses wearer's pulse to authenticate devices and applications that require iron-clad security.


According to TechHive, Bionym has been developing iOS and Android apps for things like password management, car and computer access, and even a Bitcoin wallet and using pulse authentication could make using all these things a lot easier.


The Nymi bracelet uses dual electrodes, integrated into the clasp, to take the wearer's pulse when they touch the clasp for a few seconds.

The device also includes an accelerometer and a gyroscope , and fitness apps are in the works too.

D'Souza noted that the sensors could also be used for gesture recognition, so one could incorporate movement triggers into the authentication process, the report added.

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Soon, unlock your car with your NFC-enabled smartphone

Keep misplacing your car keys? Just wave your smartphone to unlock the door!

Engineers at South Korean automobile major Hyundai have invented a new system that will allow your smartphone to double as your car keys, and the technology will be made available to buyers within two years.


Rather than using Bluetooth, the system by Hyundai uses wireless Near Field Communication ( NFC), allowing you to lock and unlock the car by waving your phone over a small tag on the car window.


Inside the car, you place the phone on a pad in the centre console that wirelessly charges it while the content is synced and streamed to the car's infotainment system and touchscreen.


The system can also store in-car preferences, including radio stations, seating positions and even mirror adjustment - with multiple profiles able to be saved for different drivers.


The system was demonstrated on a concept version of Hyundai's popular i30 in Germany.


Hyundai said developing the system was part of the carmaker's aim of producing technology for the mainstream consumer, website carsguide.com.au reported.


"The Connectivity Concept showcases Hyundai's philosophy of making tomorrow's technology accessible to a wide range of customers," Hyundai Motor Europe chief operating officer Allan Rushforth said.

"With this technology, Hyundai is able to harness the all-in-one functionality of existing smartphone technology and integrating it into everyday driving in a seamless fashion," Rushforth said.

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